If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

I went in with relatively low expectations, thinking it would be sub-inbetweeners rubbish, but have been thoroughly charmed with it. First two episodes are relatively slow, but I really feel it's settled into a fantastic comedy stride now, and I'm seeing many, many moments way too close to reality from my own student days.

It's written by Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong (Peep Show, The Thick Of It) so I guess I should've expected good based on that pedigree.

Anyway, the whole series is up now on 4oD, should you be interested. (And British)

Yeah, I quite enjoy Fresh Meat it's not particularly close to my student experience, but there are certainly recognisable types in there and they're done well, Jack Whitehall is actually pretty good in it too (not a fan of his 'I'm posh, lol' stand-up, but it works in this context).

My only slight problem with the writing is that each episode seems to come up with a contrived reason for two characters with nothing in common to hang out and 'bond' with each other (this weeks, JP & Oregon, last week JP and Howard, week before was Vod and Howard in a throwaway one episode semi-romance). I get that in student-life you're often thrown together with people and it's awkward and you have to get by etc. Also Kingsley and Josie sometimes seem to be in a different show to everyone else.

On the whole though it's pretty good.

Did anyone watch The Fades on BBC3?

I really enjoyed it for what it was, I find it bizarre that when BBC3 try genre, the success rate, writing, acting and overall quality tends to far surpass what BBC1 can come up with (I'm mostly thinking of that abortive sci-fi mess called 'Outcasts' here).

Anyway the Fades has a storyline that sounds a bit rubbish when written down - 'Fades' are undead ghost types, who have failed to ascend, can only be seen by 'Angelics' (humans possessing varying degrees of supernatural powers, sometimes their only power is that they can see Fades). The Fades can't touch people without horrendous pain, until one angry fade seems to be able to have physical contact and starts hunting down Angelics. Enter the main character, a nerdy young man who discovers he might be an Angelic.

But synopsis aside it's crammed with good performances, it doesn't pull it's punches and it's got a shedload of pop-culture references crammed in there. Well worth a watch.

Am I now safe to watch the TV series? As in.... I take it the TV series doesn't move onto story from the second book?

Yep, the first season basically just goes through the plot of the first book. There are a few things from the second book in the last episode but there not really that big and I'm guessing there still going to go more in depth in the second season anyway. So yeah I would say you can.

Oh yes I must watch The Fades, after watching the 4th episode of Merlin. I'm finding Merlin quite good, its definitely gotten a lot darker with 2 deaths so far.

I can't help myself, I'm going to give a couple of 'season 8' episodes a go. (I'm not sure if I'm supposed to admit to downloading TV shows. But my first exposure to Futurama was through downloads, and I ended up buying the seasons 1-4 box sets despite having watched (almost?) every episode on my computer.)

Decided to start with 'The Tip of the Zoidberg', and I really enjoyed it! I'm sure my low expectations helped, but I found it genuinely funny and even a little bit heartwarming. Any suggestions on what to watch next?

Frozen Planet has some incredible footage, though perhaps the most astounding thing of all is an 80 year old David Attenborough narrating from the poles themselves. The man must have serious balls, I would have thought they'd place him in the comfort of a sound booth and splice in the voiceovers over the footage.

The last episode I think is probably the best of the season and really it comes closest to old futurama to me, so definitly watch that one. I won't spoil it because a lot of the fun is discovering the different styles and references they put in that episode.

Have any one of you mates watched a short TV drama series called Generation Kill? As I am aware of it contains only 7 episodes. It is based on a non-fiction with the very same name, recording the 2003 US invasion of Iraq through the author's (I dont know his / her exact name, but he / she is a journalist) experience with a recon unit of the US Marine. If my information is accurate this is a HBO production.

On The Fades, my cousin actually stars as one of the Fades, so I kind of have to watch it.

I've only seen episode 1 so far and found it to be actually fairly watchable. It was not fantastic nor did it reach the heights of Being Human, even in its first series, but it certainly seems worth sticking with.

Recently I discovered Person of Interest and Lost Girl. Person of interest reminds me a great deal of The Equalizer - an old show from the mid 80's about a "fixer" who helped people solve problems like James Bond turned vigilante. This is a modern take on it in that the protagonists know ahead of time who's involved via an anti-terrorist Echelon type spy computer that disregards routine civilian plots for murder and mayhem. The architect of the system feels guilty that so much is not being prevented that he programs a back door that feeds him a social security number of the "person of interest" who is either going to cause, or be the victim of, a serious crime. He and his ex-spy henchman (and the viewer) have to figure out the plot, the players, and come up with a fix.

Lost Girl is a more fantasy procedural in the vein of Sanctuary or Dresden Files with the whole 'hidden world of monsters and magic around us" theme. A super sexy succubus discovers her true nature and that there is this geo-political division of the world into light and dark sided creatures living among us. Her and her utterly adorable show-stealing in every scene sidekick play both sides as ad-hoc mediators, problem solvers and liason with human interests. Yes, there's some quality T&A, but it's also a pretty decent show that actually researches creature mythos with an eye for keeping it real.

All times I have enjoyed greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those that loved me, and alone.

If you haven't watched all of the original series with the DVD commentary tracks, DO IT. DO IT NOW.

Man, I'm not sure where I was up to in the commentaries. Really enjoyed some of them, but at some point I must have had a reason to stop watching... I seem to remember certain cast members/writers being a lot more entertaining than others, so maybe I just got bored during a run of less-interesting commentaries. Anyway, good idea!

And thanks for the link, I've actually already been relying on the CGEF user reviews, but I'm never sure when to trust them. (Lots of people there with differing tastes to my own.) They served me well with Tip of the Zoidberg, though.

And thanks for the tip Xerxies, Reincarnation is one of the other episodes I picked out from the CGEF reviews, so I'll watch that one next.

Parks and Rec is fantastic. If you want to study Ron's pyramid in all its glory, you can find it here.

Yes! Parks & Rec is my go to program when I'm in need of a pick me up. I dream of Ron Swanson's beard!

Thoroughly enjoyed the fades too, thought Daniel Kaluuya was brilliant as mac. Honestly didn't expect an open end to the series though, I think I would've been happier with a something more conclusive.

I thought fresh meat would be utter rubbish, but I'm hearing good things about it, so I may have to give it a go.

Has anyone been watching Top Boy which is on channel 4 in the UK this week? I've missed the first two episodes with things getting in the way and will probably miss tomorrow's, Is it any good?

Gonna put in a +1 for Fresh Meat. Decided on a whim to start watching it at the end of last week and I now find myself up to date and awaiting the final episode of this series. It's great and, has been mentioned, Jack Whitehall is great in it. It's also one of those shows where you know everyone in it, but with the writing team behind it, it's not entirely surprising. Even if it's not laugh-out-loud humour, it's just amusing to watch. Has its flaws, but with the second series already given, it'll be interesting to see what they do with it. Also, the hiding in the bathroom scene in the last episode was extremely amusing. Also also, does anyone else think Josie is, all things considered, a selfish bitch? [spoiler]As soon as it was revealed she had a boyfriend, I was pretty shocked that someone so 'nice' would actually do that. Then she'd be telling other people secrets and so on...[/spoiler]

Anyhow, other watching:

Frozen Planet was absolutely stunning to watch. Credit to the team for that. I look forward to watching tonight's episode at some point soon on the HD iPlayer (stupid Freeview not having BBC HD). Chuck's final season started, been meaning to watch that at some point soon, as well as Misfits, although I have less motivation to watch that for some reason. Also standard fare with Have I Got News For You, which has been rather good this series. Particularly amusing seeing the gang, led by Ian Hislop, utterly dismantle Louise Mensch.

Oh for fuck's sake, is there another series of Have I Got News For You already? I always, always miss the start of it. Well I guess that gives me something to watch when eating my lunch.

After also missing the start of Misfits on Sunday I got caught up with it last night.

****SPOILERS, OBVIOUSLY****
I quite enjoyed it. A lot of time was spent to setting up Rudy, obviously. And while he's obviously been created with being comic relief in mind I really like how they've set him up and his related power. And that they've instantly "initiated" him into the gang by having him involved in his first murder/burial. :D

I like that they've generally have the four from last series have powers that make sense for their characters again*, though in Curtis' case he says it was all that was left. But based on the synopsis for the second episode it looks like they're doing something interesting with it.

* This one of my favourite things about the characters' powers, that they tie into the character's personality or fears or whatever. With Kelly's initial power being related to be obsessed with what people think about her it makes sense that she'd now go for one that makes her supernaturally clever, now she knows what they think about her. And Simon going for a precognition-type helps explain how he's able to become so good so fast at whichever of parkour or free-running his getting about would be classed as.

But yeah, I did like it and I liked Rudy a lot too.Will be interested to see what the main story of these series pans out to be.

Rudy seems like a good replacement for Nathan. From his opening scenes I was concerned that he was going to be some sort of Jekyll & Hyde character with superhuman strength (the commotion in the office sounded like he'd overpowered the bodyguard/bouncer character), but his power turned out to be pretty interesting and not at all like what I'd expected. Think his northern-ness helps as well. Also the wheelchair in the burial scene was a nice nod to their previous experiences.

I agree with what you say about their powers relating to their character traits, not sure how Kelly's will fit into the story lines though. As for the main story The power trader guy(?) seems like he's going to feature. Possibly the probation worker may develop?

***Teh Misfits Spoilz***
Yeah, the power seller bloke is obviously going to be part of whatever the main story is seeing as he's already in the preview for the next episode. Hopefully probation worker vs. Rudy scenes will be as entertaining as they were with Nathan.***End***

So yeah, I watched the first episode of Fresh Meat. Not sure what I thought of it to be honest. But I liked enough of it that I'll watched another couple of episodes at least.